This article could have been entitled 337,737,600 seconds, but hiding the fact that Prototypo started more than 10 years ago would have been a missed opportunity to show the dedication the team and I, as a founder, put in this project over the years.
Prototypo started as a student project when I studied Graphic Design at H.E.A.R Strasbourg in France. As a non-savvy Type Designer I was frustrated to not be able to complete the typeface projects I had in mind. Typefaces are made of rules and systems, right? Catcha! We can code something that follows rules, so we should succeed in coding fonts. That was the starting point of the next 10 years, and the beginning of the Roller Coaster, a.k.a creating a startup company.
Prototypo is a startup like many others: before having a stable and reliable business model, we put a lot of energy into developing innovative and useful technologies for our users.
But before being a startup, Prototypo is a company. Today we have reached the end of our resources without having found the expected Product Market Fit, and so the Break-even.
After several years of a strong dedication and passion for what we’ve built, we decided to shutdown the company.
Since the first second, I knew that it would be a hard journey with many obstacles on the path. But I regret nothing. The next 337,737,599 seconds were full of great experiences, shared with amazing people.
Thank you for those who supported us along the road, and our partner in design Production Type who powered all our font templates since 2015.
It was a great adventure.
Yannick, (former) CEO